KEVIN Keegan still harbours the twin desires of a top-six Premiership berth and some new faces at Maine Road following the defeat at Newcastle.

The Blues boss has given his hard-working troops a few days rest in the hope that they will regroup fresh and eager for the visit of Fulham next Wednesday.

But there will be no respite for the manager who is determined to strengthen his hand for the final third of a campaign that he insists could still end in glory.

"We will use this break to integrate the new players and, hopefully, we will have one or two in by the next game, " Keegan said.

'Looking up the league'

"But, as we found out last week, you do not always get what you want.

"I am still looking up the League and it is very important that the players still do."

Keegan lamented the absence of injured playmaker Eyal Berkovic from his starting line up but refuted suggestions that the Blues are a one-man team.

"We missed Eyal there is no doubt about that," he said. "How much it is difficult to say. If he had been playing we still would have been 1-0 down unless we had passed the ball to him. I don't think he would have passed it back to Nashy!

"Even though we didn't play very well we created some very good chances. Ali hit the post, Nicolas Anelka in the second half could have made it 1-1. But history will say 2-0 and deservedly so for Newcastle. I would like to play it again and let them have the kick off!"

Players back

Berkovic, Peter Schmeichel, Darren Huckerby and Shaun Wright-Phillips are all expected back for the next contest so allowing Keegan more room to manoeuvre.

Keegan was happy with the late contributions made by substitutes Jon Macken and Djamel Belmadi who were both making their Premiership bows.

"I am pleased for Jon who has been out a long time," he said. I didn't really want to put him on for so long as he has only had a couple of reserve games but needs must. We were a bit short on numbers.

"I thought Belmadi did very well when he went on."

Should KK stick with the squad he's got until the summer? Have your say.